Amazon

So we finally made it to the Amazon.  A couple days after we were hoping and only to Belem, a biggish city at the mouth of the Amazon.  It was mighty hot when we got there- 90 degrees and only 9:30 am.  We found a hostel in Comercio, the historic center of Belem.  Belem is a city of a couple million in the metro area.  It is best known as the port city of the Amazon.  Everything that goes up or down river passes Belem.  It is also a city that on the second Sunday of October hosts 2 million people for a religious celebration.  People come to parade and hold a rope that stretches for 7km around the city through the streets linking two separate churches.  The images of this are quite amazing.  

The first sightseeing thing we did in Belem was head to the zoo/city rainforest park. It is a small space, preserved from colonial times. Outside we had a snack, tacaca, a soup of dried shrimp, cassava in a gummy texture, and Jambi leaves, a very tangy vegetable like collared greens.  It was okay, but we would not order seconds.  The tanginess was just too much.  Inside the zoo was kind of disappointing.  The big snakes were closed for viewing, as were the piranha and other fish.  The jaguar was hidden and the tigers were sleeping aside from one Fangy grin.  We did see many birds like ibises, tucans, and parrots, along with capybaras, tapirs, monkeys, turtles, tortoises, and iguanas.  

In the afternoon we walked around some of the neighborhood in Belem where high-rises seem to be springing up on ever corner.  We ended up inside in the AC at a shopping mall.  We think we saw the temperatures reach 104.

Our second day in Belem we walked around the port and historic old city.  The port was pretty impressive.  The city has invested a lot of dollars into attracting tourism with renovated warehouses and shipping equipment on display. It was from here that we saw the amazon, a huge brown river with numerous islands in this part of the delta.  Nearby we walked Ver o peso market, the largest in all Latin America.  There are over 12000 stalls!  They sell everything from clothing to witchcraft items, lotions and perfumes to salted dried seafood, live chickens, ducks, the birds, and mice for some unknown purpose, meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables and regional crafts.  It was lots of fun to gawk and wander at the stalls.

After the market we checked out the fort and the cathedral.  We took a rest in a plaza with fresh chilled coconut juice.  The. I asked the vendor to hack it open so we could eat the meat.  It was so refreshing.  

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering shops and the Comercio.  The area is filed with sidewalk vendors and bargain stores.  We had ice cream at the port, watching a pretty spectacular downpour of rain.  We watched the sunset over the river- the water was a shimmery purple because of the glow from the sun.

Then at night we checked out of the hostel and headed to the airport for our flight at 2:40am.  It was bizarre when we got to the airport around 10, it was super quiet.  Then around 11, stores and restaurants started opening and many passengers starting checking in for other flights.  We learned later the airport is closed earlier in the day because there are no flights out.